Comments on: The Winner Takes The Ball: Champ Manager Demo

By: Mr Pink

Mr Pink — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:57:28 +0000

Yeah, it does look nice. The thing is that football fans are very used to the way football “looks”, and to convince us that we are watching a “real” match is going to take some doing. Players don’t go for loose balls, they miss incredibly obvious through balls, they make suicidal backpasses, or totally ignore players in acres of space. If these were occasional it might be ok, but they happen in every game. Also the players don’t move realistically relative to the ball, and they have no physicality. I know all of this is a big ask, but until someone can do it all I would honestly rather have text only in the match engine. I think I’ll stick with CM 01/02. No problem with that on a netbook!

By: Super Bladesman

Super Bladesman — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:37:46 +0000

Mr Pink – they must be. I was trying to be constructive, but in all honesty the CM10 match engine is like watching primary school football. It’s pretty though…

By: Joshua

Joshua — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:19:14 +0000

This game doesn’t work on netbooks. I don’t know why. Crash on startup. I know netbooks suck but this is like the perfect game for it. I spent most of this weekend playing 01/02 (which is free on the website, and there are update patches) on mine. It was great.

By: Sly_Boots

Sly_Boots — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:30:40 +0000

I’m siding with the critics on this one. Seen some howlers during the 3D match play, including loose balls in the opponent’s third of the pitch that my nearest play actually sprints away from. Frustrating.

I like the training part, but there’s a lack of feedback. Should I be running drills manually each day (which would get tedious quickly), or once set up do they run automatically, or what. Same for team talks, after one all my players immediately went to ‘V Poor’ morale, but no suggestion why. We’d won the game and I’d congratulated them.

It also falls into the trap of injuries being too frequent. In the space of two Premier League matches, I’d picked up six injuries. Combined with the fact it takes each player at least a week to get from a condition of 80% up to 100%, it meant I was forced to field a team of mostly reserves in the next match. Not very realistic. Gave up at that point and am unlikely to revisit it.

By: Mr Pink

Mr Pink — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:36:26 +0000

Are other people using a different 3D match engine to me? In the first half of my first game I’ve already had two players with open goals who failed to even attempt to move towards the ball, and a backpass so bad you wouldn’t see it in a kids game. I still haven’t come across a match engine that I prefer to text only, at least then you don’t get these frustrating glitches, which kill the immersion.

By: Dolphan

Dolphan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:35:24 +0000

Loving this demo. FM09 was pretty disappointing, and the match engine on this is far better. Set piece creator actually works pretty well as far as I can tell, though shooting from free kicks is a bit weak. I’ve set up some pretty effective moves. Seeing much better feedback from tactical changes than in FM as well.

By: Super Bladesman

Super Bladesman — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:40:38 +0000

I thought I’d give the CM demo a whirl. Personally, I wasn’t impressed :(

Some very nice ideas, but I don’t like the blocky UI and the match engine is still very poor. I said in advance that I had concerns over the set piece creator, and those concerns were borne out – it’s a good idea, but woefully executed. I set up a simple routine where a free kick taker would shoot at goal. The opposition keeper would move, before the kick was taken, to where the shot would end up… shocking.

I genuinely hope BGS can pull it off one year – but it’s not this year.

By: dan

dan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:29:08 +0000

@Nimic: that’s why I haven’t played a CM game since, I’ve been playing FM :)

Thought I’d give the demo a whirl, enjoying it so far. The match engine’s better than FM’s, at least.

By: Nimic

Nimic — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:28:23 +0000

Dan, then you want to play Football Manager, not Championship Manager. A few years back the developers and the publishers split. Sports Interactive kept the code (aka the game), while the developers kept the name. The CM of today has nothing to do with the CM of back when, except for the name.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:35:08 +0000

Downloading now from the internet. Haven’t played a CM game since 2001!

By: Rei Onryou

Rei Onryou — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:44:46 +0000

As an ALT text reader, I’d just like Kieron to know that RPS is my favourite and I like you.

Share the love people!

By: Freudian Trip

Freudian Trip — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:36:19 +0000

Does it struggle with the same problems Football Manager does. Namely that you have to put more hours in than Sir Alex does to play a season? I miss being able to play a season in a day.